


Cards

by Aravis_Bryir



Series: California One-Shots [4]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Autistic Hannah Foster, California, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24109183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aravis_Bryir/pseuds/Aravis_Bryir
Summary: "What's this, Banana?""For you."
Relationships: Ethan Green & Hannah Foster, Hannah Foster & Lex Foster, Hannah Foster & Webby, Lex Foster & Ethan Green, Lex Foster/Ethan Green
Series: California One-Shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1736671
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58





	Cards

**Author's Note:**

> It's mother's day in Australia for the next twenty minutes (posting this at 11:40PM) so I wrote this for the occasion

Hannah liked her school a lot better in California than she did in Hatchetfield. The teachers were a lot nicer for one, and no one had called her trailer-trash and no one seemed to care that she was different. She would still prefer to spend her days at home with Lex and Ethan, but they had to work so, off to school she went. It was a cool autumn day, the wind blowing the leaves from the trees in the schoolyard. It was a Friday, which meant tomorrow she got to stay in bed as long as she wanted and convince Ethan to make her chocolate-chip pancakes. Saturdays only had one rule; that she wasn’t allowed to bother Ethan or Lex until 8:30, promptly at which she would march in and jump on top of them and demand breakfast. But before she could enjoy the wonders of Saturday, she had to endure the day at school.  
“Okay, class.” Her teacher, Miss Larvernor, said. “Now I’m sure most of you are well aware that mother’s day is this Sunday. So, we are going to make cards for our mums. Come up to my desk and you can pick out a piece of coloured card, I’ve also go stickers and magazines you can cut photos out of, and there’s some glitter. You can come on up and grab some things to share amongst your table groups.”   
Everyone got out of their seats to collect the craft supplies, also pulling textas and colouring pencils out of their pencil cases. Hannah obediently got up and picked herself out a piece of card and sat back down in her seat. She sat there starring at the green card she’d selected as her classmates eagerly began decorating their own.   
After fifteen minutes of this, Miss Larvernor came up next to her.  
“Everything alright, Hannah?” She asked placing a hand on Hannah’s shoulder, who immediately shrunk away from the touch. “You haven’t started your card.”   
Hannah shook her head, continuing to stare at the card.  
“Don’t you want to make your mum something for mother’s day?”  
“California. No mum.” She mumbled. She didn’t want to send her mum a card, because she’d never really done the things mums were meant to do. Besides Hannah didn’t even remember the address for their Hatchetfield trailer. She began to fiddle with the cuff of her flannel sleeve. Miss Larvernor was new and didn’t no that sleeve fiddling was stage 1 of a Hannah panic attack.  
“What do you mean by that?”  
“California. No mum.” She persisted, now rocking in her chair. Stage 2 of a Hannah panic attack. She wanted Miss Larvernor to leave her alone. She didn’t want to make a stupid card for her stupid mum back in Hatchetfield. Luckily one of the boys in her table group, Owen, intervened.  
“Didn’t anyone tell you, Miss? Hannah doesn’t live with her mum.” He said.  
“Do you live with your dad, Hannah?” She asked.  
Hannah shook her head, rocking harder now.  
“You should write a card to whoever is like a mum to you, Hannah.” Owen suggested, he’d sat opposite her all year, and could tell she was getting anxious.  
“That’s a good idea, Owen. Who is like a mum to you, Hannah?” Her teacher asked, trying once again to touch Hannah and help her out.  
Hannah clamped her hands over her ears. There were too many questions. Her breath quickened as she started to move into fully blown panic. She hadn’t had many panic attacks at her California school. Normally she was able to calm herself down or someone was able to help, but this new teacher had never been present for one, and didn’t know how to help.  
“What’s wrong, Hannah?”  
Tears began to fall down Hannah’s cheeks. There were too many questions. She could feel the eyes of her classmates looking at her. She didn’t like it when they did that, it only made things worse.  
“Miss, I think you should take her to the nurse and they can call someone to pick her up.” She heard Owen say, but his voice sounded like it was miles away.  
“Come on then, Hannah, let’s get you too the nurse. Keep working on your cards everyone.” Miss Larvernor instructed.  
Hannah slowly got to her feet, her legs wobbled as she walked. Miss Larvernor tried to help her, but it only caused the tears to fall faster. Eventually they got to the nurse’s office where Hannah was left alone in a chair, while Miss Larvernor had the nurse call Lex or Ethan.  
She sat in the chair, silently crying with her hands over her ears for half and hour until Ethan showed up.  
He crouched in front of her. “Hey, Banana.” He didn’t say anything more, just staying there in front of her, waiting for a signal as to what sort of panic attack this was. Though, he had a pretty good guess that it was sound related, due to the position of her hands.   
Eventually she softly kicked him with her foot. Telling him that he was allowed to touch her. He immediately scooped her up into his arms. Almost instantly she felt miles better and slowly took her hands from her ears so she could hold onto him, burying her head between his shoulder and neck.   
With a groan, Ethan stood up, still holding Hannah and began to rub her back soothingly.  
“It’s okay, Banana, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” He said softly.  
Her only response was to hug him tighter. They stayed that way for a while until all of Hannah’s tears had dried up. She felt a lot calmer now, but she didn’t want Ethan to put her down yet.  
“Too many questions.” She spoke so quietly it was a wonder Ethan had heard her at all. He knew she didn’t like it when people kept asking her questions, especially if they didn’t understand her answers. It was frustrating for her and made her anxious if people kept trying to get information out of her when she’d already said it in her own way. It took a long time for someone to understand Hannah. Even Lex struggled sometimes, but usually figured out what Hannah was trying to tell her eventually.  
“I’m sorry, Split, I know that’s hard for you.”  
Hannah replied by using her finger to draw a question mark on Ethan’s cheek, telling him that he was allowed to ask her questions, though depending on what it was he might not get an answer. It had taken months, as well as help from Lex to learn Hannah’s little signals that she used when she was in panic mode or when she just didn’t want to talk. “Thanks, Split. Do you think you can go back to class?”  
She shook her head, tightening her grip.  
“Okay then, home it is, I guess.” He began to walk down the hallway. “We’ll have to pop into your classroom to grab you backpack, though. Do you want to come in with me or stay outside?”  
This was a bit of a dilemma for Hannah. She didn’t want to go back into her classroom, but she didn’t want Ethan to leave her either. Her heart rate began to increase again as her breathing became faster.  
“It’s okay, I won’t leave you. I can ask someone to bring out you bag, yeah?” He stopped walking for a second, still rubbing circles onto her back. She soon calmed down after she processed the compromise, loosening her grip on him a bit.   
Ethan continued to walk to her classroom. Once there he knocked on the door, sticking his head in, asking for Miss Larvernor.  
“Hi, Miss Larvernor, right? I’m Ethan, Hannah’s guardian.”  
“Nice to meet you Ethan.”  
At the sound of Miss Larvernors voice, Hannah shrunk as far into Ethan as she could, moving her hands over her ears. He deduced that Miss Larvernor had been the question asker.  
“Would Hannah like to re-join the class? There’s still some time left for her to make her mother’s day card before lunch.”  
“She doesn’t want to go in, so we were just swinging by to collect her bag before going home.” Ethan said.   
“Of course.” She leaned in through the door and asked for Owen to bring over Hannah’s bag.   
Once the back had been brought over, Ethan opened it up and pulled out a pair of soundproof headphones.  
“Hold on, Banana.” He instructed. She carefully removed her hands from her ears and wrapped them around his neck. Ethan then placed the headphones over her ears. She relaxed a bit, not having to worry about sound anymore.  
“You seem well, practiced at that.” Miss Larvernor observed. “Does she have episodes like this often?”  
“Yeah, at least once a week, which is a lot better than before we moved to California. Before that she’d have them most days.” He explained. “Her Autism makes her super sensitive, but being in a healthy environment has helped a lot.”  
“I didn’t realise she was Autistic.”  
“The school probably should have told you that. Do you have any idea what set her off?”  
“Oh, I’m not sure. I was trying to help her with her mother’s day card. She hadn’t started at all and I wanted to see if I could give her a hand.”  
“Okay. Did she say anything to you at all?”  
“She said ‘California. No mum.’ A few times, but when I tried to find out what she meant she started crying. I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to upset her.”  
“Don’t worry, every teacher she’s ever had has caused a panic attack, so you’re not the first and I doubt you’ll be the last.” Ethan said  
“You’re her guardian, you say?” Miss Larvernor asked.  
“Yeah, that’s right.”  
“She doesn’t have parents, I take it then? So mothers must be a sensitive topic?”  
“She has a mum, who is probably the worst lady I’ve had the displeasure of meeting. Me, Hannah and Lex skipped town earlier this year to get away from her. Hannah’s normally fine when we talk about her mum, but it was probably the thought of doing something nice to someone who abused her and her sister was what making her anxious.” Ethan explained. He didn’t want to get too into their backstory, but wanted Hannah to feel safe at school, and her teacher knowing at least part of her living situation would help that.  
“I’m so sorry to hear all that.”  
“Thanks. We’re okay though, we made it out.”  
“I take it Lex is her sister?”  
“Yeah, and also my girlfriend. That’s how I know Hannah. Me and Lex did the paperwork to become her legal guardians as soon as we got here.” Ethan said, hitching Hannah up a bit higher on his hip and swinging her backpack over his shoulder. “Anyway, I best be getting her home.”  
“Yes, it was nice meeting you, and thank you for telling me about her.”  
“Don’t worry about it. Also before I go, here’s a tip for the future; be careful asking her questions. Often she’ll give you an answer that won’t quite make sense, but it makes sense to her and she gets frustrated if you try to get her to explain it, because she doesn’t know how to say it any different.”  
“Thanks.” Miss Larvernor nods and heads back into her classroom, as Ethan walks Hannah out of the school.   
It took a while for Ethan to convince Hannah to let go of him long enough for them to drive home, but eventually she released him enough so he could get into the driver’s side, but as soon as he was seated she grabbed onto his arm for the drive home.  
Ethan carried Hannah into the apartment and sat down on the couch, manoeuvring her so that she was sitting on his lap. He flicked on the TV and Hannah snuggled into him. He pulled out his phone, finding a text from Lex.  
Lex: Is Hannah ok?  
Ethan: Yeah calmed her down. She didn’t wanna go back to class tho  
Lex: What happened?  
Ethan: Teacher kept asking why she wasn’t making a card for mother’s day  
Lex: Oh  
Ethan: Yeah  
Lex: R u guys home now?  
Ethan: Yeah. Think Banana’s falling asleep.  
Hannah’s face was completely relaxed; her grip on Ethan had become loose as she slipt into sleep, though Ethan dared not move her to her bed.  
Lex: I’ll be quiet when I come home then

* * *

When Hannah woke up on Sunday morning she immediately remembered what day it was. It was mother’s day. She started to feel slightly panicked, fearing that her mother may somehow show up here in California and hit Lexi like she did when they were in Hatchetfield. But then Hannah remembered something Owen had said before she went home on Friday; ‘you should write a card to whoever is like a mother to you.” Hannah knew what to do, and got straight to work.  
As soon as she was finished she walked over to where Lex was sitting on the couch next to Ethan and presented her with a card. It was just a piece of paper folded in half with a spider drawn on the front, but she’d worked hard on it.  
“What’s this, Banana?” Lex asked taking the card from Hannah.  
“For you.” She said sitting next to her sister.  
“Thanks, ‘nana.” She opened up the paper and read what was inside.

Dear Lexi,  
Owen said to write a card to someone who is like a mum to me, and that’s you because you always take care of me and make me feel good when I’m sad. Webby says you’re a good mum to me too. So, thank you for taking care of me ever since I was really little. Happy mother’s day.  
Love Hannah

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't planning on this fic being so long but oh well. More fuel for the fanfiction fandom I guess.


End file.
